The necessity of changing the functioning of logistics chains – from traditional to sustainable logistics chains
The necessity of changes in the functioning of logistics chains is a natural consequence of modifications occurring in industry, transport, and trade. Changes in the way logistics chains function should aim towards their sustainability, which consequently aims to create sustainable metalogistic systems in which:
• methods of implementation and/or types of matter and energy are selected, choosing supply, production, distribution, and transport methods that are as least burdensome as possible to the natural and social environment
• the quantity of materials, raw materials, semi-finished products, and finished goods is minimized
• the efficiency of energy and matter utilization is maximized by extending product life cycles
• used matter and energy are segregated by minimizing and separating waste and disposing of the consequences of supply, production, distribution, and transport in a segregated manner.
Logistics chains functioning based on the above-mentioned principles will undoubtedly contribute to the implementation and dissemination of sustainable development assumptions.
The concept of the logistical ecological imperative
Actions taken to balance supply chains should grow from the foundation of the logistical ecological imperative concept. According to the assumptions of this concept, logistics chains should be viewed as a system of several or more interconnected links in the supply and sales chain, processing matter and/or energy, thereby enabling the fulfillment of the needs of individual links in the logistics chain (as well as the chain as a whole), with which the necessity of removing the consequences of fulfilling these needs is simultaneously associated (Figure 1).
According to the above definition, the following functions should be performed in a sustainable logistics chain:
• identification of the needs of the logistics chain as a whole and the needs of individual entities forming the links of this chain
• indication of various (alternative) ways of fulfilling needs
• selection of the method of fulfilling the need
• determination of the level of need fulfillment
• fulfillment of the need
• indication of ways to remove the consequences of fulfilling needs
• selection of the method of removing the consequences of fulfilling needs.
The implementation of these functions can take place in various ways, but it is necessary to adhere to four principles: selection, minimization, maximization, and segregation. Table 1 presents the principles of the functioning of logistics chains in accordance with the ecological imperative, the application of which leads to the balancing of these chains.
The first principle of the logistical ecological imperative implies that a given need of a logistics system of a single enterprise or an entire supply chain can be fulfilled using various methods and functional forms of matter, and through different uses of time, space, and energy. It turns out that minimizing the consumption of matter, space, time, and energy in logistics processes can occur in a way other than that resulting from the principle of minimizing consumption. There are, in fact, ways of carrying out logistics processes, and thus satisfying needs, that do not require (from the point of view of supply chain participants) the use of one’s own energy, matter, space, and time.